FiReControl Solution
A safe pair of hands for FiReControl
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FiReControl is one of the key building blocks in evolving the UK’s public safety. EADS is working in partnership with Communities and Local Government to deliver new levels of community protection to meet the complex challenges of the 21st century.
Through FiReControl, the Government will deliver a national network of nine Regional Control Centres (RCCs) that can support each other in mobilising and managing the resources of all Fire and Rescue Services in England. To achieve this they will be designed to the bespoke requirements of the Fire and Rescue Services (FRS), thoroughly tested in a multitude of scenarios and dynamically integrated to provide an optimum service in the most demanding environments.
What is it?
FiReControl involves the convergence of the current 46 nationwide control rooms with a national network of nine purpose-built Regional Control Centres (RCCs) that will provide a linked, secure, resilient communications and information infrastructure to more effectively manage and deploy resources on a local, regional or national level. There is no doubt that the Fire and Rescue Service in England is one of the best in the world; the new solution enables data to be stored nationally and takes the service to the next level. Different Fire and Rescue Services currently deploy their resources, utilising different command and control and mobilisation systems. FiReControl will align the best practices across the RCCs and facilitate the sharing of information on a national level. This also enables resilience - that is the capacity to control and handle any civil emergency, including response to terrorist attacks and environmental disasters, even if some of the RCCs are attacked themselves.
How does it work?
FiReControl employs many new technologies to create the optimised service:
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RCC operators can determine the location of an emergency caller to a pinpointed grid reference, enabling RCC operators to locate an incident and deploy without regional knowledge. This avoids having to ask questions to locate the caller, thus saving valuable time
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The system acts as a central repository for all information related to deploying Fire and Rescue Service resource, the equipment needed for the varying emergency call types and supporting information e.g. hydrant locations, overhead wires
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HP Non-Stop servers are used, which have a very resilient hardware uptime, to ensure the national data is replicated at multiple sites and remains accurate and up to date. These are the same as those used by the Bank of England and other multinational organisations where security is of the utmost importance
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Satellite positioning can monitor the whereabouts of each vehicle and process data which decides whether they are the best resource for a particular incident: is the correct equipment on board? How long will it take to travel to an incident? Is there likely to be heavy traffic?
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Emergency vehicles will be deployed and co-ordinated using data transmission as opposed to voice calls, irrespective of where they are located
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Mobile Data Terminals will be installed in vehicle cabs so that fire fighters can be provided with constantly updated information.
What are the benefits?
Flexibility
In the event of a nationalscale incident, resources can be deployed to anywhere in the country from any of the RCCs. The design of the RCCs is consistent across the country, with a familiar format allowing for generic training and easily transferable skills.
Scalability
Operations can be upscaled or down-scaled immediately to suit the requirements of any given situation; FiReControl is responsive to dynamic and changing needs, locally, regionally or nationally.
Resilience and Security
FiReControl integrates with Firelink, the national wide-area radio network of the UK’s Fire and Rescue Service. It utilises secure inter-site network connectivity and provides a highly resilient data environment for both storage and transfer mechanisms.
Why has EADS been chosen?
EADS is sensitive to the process of transition and operational continuity in delivering a common national response capability.
The EADS consortium has a partnership approach which has already resulted in the delivery of information and technology solutions to 30% of the UK’s Fire and Rescue Service. The consortium consists of market leaders in their respective fields and will deliver a world class suite of computer-aided systems to enable staff to locate and directly mobilise the nearest appropriate resources automatically.
Through the use of a System Reference Model, EADS can duplicate RCC functionality, ensuring that all possible integration risks have been identified and mitigated. This allows for a faster rollout, lower through-life costs and the ability to provide additional capacity, resilience and functionality.
EADS is in the top quartile of suppliers to the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Parties involved in selecting EADS for the contract award stated that they were impressed with our “end-user” focus and passion for delivering a solution that met requirements.
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